US weekly jobless claims rise by 12,000

Applications for unemployment benefits in the US increased less than forecast last week as an improving economy prompted employers to retain staff.

First-time jobless claims climbed 12,000 to 293,000 in the week ended 20 September, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 46 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 296,000. Claims reached a 14-year low of 279,000 in mid-July.

Firings are hovering near decade lows and companies are hiring in anticipation of a sustained pickup in household spending. Still missing from the equation are bigger wage gains, which would shift the economic expansion into higher gear.

“This is all good news,” said Ray Stone, managing director at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey, who forecast a rise in claims to 293,000. “The labor market is doing pretty good.”

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 275,000 to 320,000.

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